Many of my songs have a "!" next to them and it says the song could not be used bc original file could not be found, what am I doing wrong?

Help

Your iTunes may have lost track of your music file location, you may find many of the songs in Itunes music library to precede with an ! symbol.
Do you know where is the location of the original music file?
If so, double click a song with ! mark on side, you will be given an option to locate the file where the song is held. Select "locate" and direct it to your folder / file where the song is and open it.
iTunes then will give you the option to use this process to update all of your library. OK that as this will do it automatically instead of fixing them one by one.

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After downloading itunes on my new computer all of my songs have an exclamation point in front of them and it says the song could not be used because the original file could not be found. How do I fix this?

After downloading itunes on my new computer all of my songs have an exclamation point in front of them and it says the song could not be used because the orginal file could not be found. How do I fix this?

Hey waltee911,
It sounds like you're seeing something similar to this picture:
If that's the case, the following article has troubleshooting steps to solve the issue:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
Welcome to Apple Support Communities!
Sincerely,
Delgadoh

Song could not be used bc original file could not be found?

song could not be used bc original file could not be found?
I uploaded a bunch of cds into itunes a while ago now, and for some reason more than half my library has this error. Is there anyway to solve this without reloading everything???

Well usually when this happens you have eaither changed the files location, changed the files or folders name, or somehow deleted the file.
You have to put it back EXACTLY where it was and with its name

The song could not be used because original file could not be found

I just loaded iTunes on my new laptop running Windows 8. I then synced my iPod Nano hoping existing songs would be imported. Songs seemed to come across but when I try to play on my computer I get message - "The song could not be used because original file could not be found." Can anybody help?

Solution may be found if you search in the "More Like This" section over in the right column.

I want to play songe in itunes bur all i get i "song could not be used because original file could not be found"

i want to play songe in itunes bur all i get i "song could not be used because original file could not be found"i want to play songe in itunes bur all i get i "song could not be used because original file could not be found"

but they are on my phone and play

Song can not be used because Original file can not be located - HELP

Hi - Newbie here and I have run into and error and don't know how to fix it. When I try to play a large number of songs from Itunes I get the following message. "The Song (NAME) could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" I have no idea where the orginal files are and I am not sure how to fix this error. Could someone please help me out! Thanks - KAggie

This happens if the files are no longer where iTunes expects to find them. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the files, or that the drive they live on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes.
If the files are nowhere to be found on your computer, but exist on a device, see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
While deleting & reimporting works when the media can be found the process will delete user playlists, ratings, play counts, date added information and any other metadata not stored in tags.
tt2

"song could not be used because original file could not be found..."

My entire music library files cannot be found. When I click on a song I get a popup that says "song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" I can't find the files anywhere, can't open any from my Windows Media player, from Quicktime or anywhere and can't find them on my hard drive. I have about 2300 songs downloaded from my CD collection and a handful of songs purchased on itunes. I have searched for all "mp3" files, no luck, searched by "title/artist", no luck. Yikes!!

I've occasionally had an artist or LP go missing from my library, but to have the entire library disappear is incredible!
Depending upon which version of itunes you are using, you should find your music here: (if it still exists)
User (insert name here)>Music>itunes music>(Folders for each artist)
or
User (insert name here)>Music>itunes media (I think)>music> (Folders for each artist)
If you find your music folder in either of these places, close the windows, open itunes, from the file menu, select "Add to Library" and navigate to the music folder and select it. Itunes should recreate your library.

Post-Match: "song could not be used bec original file could not be found"

I have subscribed to iTunes Match, completed the Match process and transfered my music to iCloud, I then deleted the local music files. My music played fine until today in which each song has the exclamation point before it indicated the music file does not exist and I cannot play the song. I am still subscribed to Match, I updated it and it confirmed that my 5000+ songs are in the cloud. Why won't they play????

Well usually when this happens you have eaither changed the files location, changed the files or folders name, or somehow deleted the file.
You have to put it back EXACTLY where it was and with its name

My songs disappeared- get message "could not be used because original file could not be found?

how can I access my songs?

This happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout,or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
tt2

Imovie won't let me drag the songs from the music and sound effects into my 'project'... I have tried everything, restarting itunes and imovie, dragging the songs to my desktop and then onto imovie, youtube tutorials...

imovie won't let me drag the songs from the music and sound effects into my 'project'... I have tried everything, restarting itunes and imovie, dragging the songs to my desktop and then onto imovie, youtube tutorials...

Don't drag them, import them from Media.

ITunes Match is having errors d/l songs to my iPhone 4s. Then I can't delete them, and it says some songs are playing when they aren't. I've restored my iPhone, same issue.

iTunes Match is having errors d/l songs to my iPhone 4s. Then I can't delete them, and it says some songs are playing when they aren't. I've restored my iPhone, same issue.

According to this article Using iPhone on an airplane you should be able to listen to music with Airplay Mode enabled.
Make sure you have Music switched on in Settings > Store or your music won't download via Wi-Fi.

ITunes will no longer play my music, all the albumss are there but it if I click on a song to play it I get a message saying " The song (name of song) could not be played because the original file coul not be found. Would you like to locate it."

iTunes will no longer play my music, all the albumss are there but it if I click on a song to play it I get a message saying " The song (name of song) could not be played because the original file coul not be found. Would you like to locate it."

You get this message because iTunes can’t find the file. This can happen for a number of reasons:
The song file or a folder in its path was renamed
The song file or the folder it is in has been moved
The song file has been deleted
The device containing the song files e.g. external drive is not accessible or the drive letter has changed.
Do any of these aply to you?

Song could not be played because original file could not be found

Song could not be played because original file could not be found."
how do I fix/replace a damaged library without reloading all of my 3000+ songs?

Hello bartap,
I would be concerned too if I was not able to locate my music in iTunes. I recommend reviewing the following articles to locate you music files on your computer:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1408
Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

I have a phone in Canada and one in the us. Can I use both phones on the us account and or the canadian account??

I have a phone in Canada and one in the us. Can I use both phones on the us account and or the canadian account??

You have to be in a country to use its store (that is part of the store's terms), so whilst you are in the US you can use the phone(s) that you have with you to buy/download from the store, and similarly when you are in Canada and the Canadian store - you can use the same account on both phones.

Library Lost - Please HeIp I tried updating my old ipod & now all 10,000 songs in my library have an ! next to them and I get the error message "song " " could not be used because the original file could not be found" on every song I try to play

Please help - this morning I tried updating one of my old ipods for my wife (this ipod hasn't been updated in 2-3 years). I plugged it into my pc, it was recognized and the software updated. I created a new playlist and tied to sync the ipod. This ipod had never been used on this pc/itunes since the pc is only 2 years old. When I tried to sync the ipod it stated that it would have to erase all the old songs on the ipod prior to syncing. I clicked ok and it proceeded to wipe out the old ipod and sync the new playlist (~1000 songs). When the sync was complete there were only 6 songs from the new playlist (all purchased this morning from itunes) on the ipod and to my horror all ~10,000 song on my pc in itunes now have a ! next to them. Only my recent purchases from itunes do not. When I click on a song with the ! I get the error message "the song " " could not be used because the original file could not be found." How do I correct this issue - I am scared to hook my ipads or other ipods to my pc for fear of losing everything?!?!? I spent 100s of hours burning the 10,000 songs from my cd collection and do not want to have to do it again.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

This "original file cannot be found" thing happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout,or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
tt2

Many of my songs have a "!" next to them and it says the song could not be used bc original file could not be found, what am I doing wrong?

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